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Kentucky's Louisville Zoo is planning to offer rides on two new trains as soon as staff members are fully trained on how to operate the vehicles.
The move comes more than three years after a train derailed at the facility, injuring 17 children and five adults. State investigators found contributing factors to the accident included that the train was traveling too fast, that it was in bad mechanical condition and the operator wasn't properly trained.
Zoo director John Walczak told The Courier-Journal that an announcement on when the trains would begin running would come later.
The zoo has spent more than $1 million to restart train rides at the facility. That includes the cost of the trains and improvements to the tracks.
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Grandma's influence strikes again!
Whenever we have a holiday or birthday meal, we always assign my grandmother to bring her sweet potato casserole. It's magnificent. Perhaps it's the pineapple mixed with the sweet potatoes, or perhaps it's the coconut and pecans in the streusel topping (no marshmallows here, folks). Either way, it's like candy to me and it usually takes up more than a quarter of my plate. If you saw the other foods in the spread we usually have, you'd realize that this is saying a lot for them good ol' taters.
My belabored point is that I love sweet potato casserole. Many moons ago (last October, to be exact), as I was scanning some of my favorite blogs (Cupcake Project, to be exact), I happened upon an interesting recipe. In fact, I did a double-take. Sweet potato casserole...cupcakes? Why, yes, yes it was. Hmm. I bookmarked the recipe, adding it to the abyss of recipes I'd like to try, and promptly forgot about it.
Twas fate, my friends, which brought that recipe to my attention again. I've been paired Stef from Cupcake Project for Taste & Create VII.
Although she has many, many amazing, unique, and incredible cupcake recipes, I clearly had to pick the Sweet Potato Casserole Cupcakes.
[I feel a bit guilty that I only have about 15 recipes posted on my site, most of which involve a sourdough starter. Sorry Stef!]
What did I think? These. Were. Breathtaking.
*I used pureed sweet potatoes from my grandpa's garden, which explains why mine are a little lighter in color than Stef's, who used canned puree.
*I skipped the filling. I know, I know--I'm a slacker.
*I used about twice as much icing as Stef, but I'm a professed icing girl. Plus, it happened to be one of the most wonderful icings I've ever eaten, so that might've had something to do with it. Me like caramel.
*In an attempt to make these more like Grandma's casserole, I added some coconut on top. Others I topped with glazed walnuts. (I liked the coconut ones better.)
*Cupcakes are not my forte, so I don't own any cups or even a tin pan. I used my silicone muffin pans instead, so that's why there're no festive paper liners to be seen.
This is a top-notch recipe, and I'd like to give Stef a hearty pat on the back for coming up with it. Nicely done, milady! Keep up the good work!
March 20, 2008
taste & create vii--they call me tater...cupcake?
YumLabels: blog events, cupcakes
5 comments:
- Stef said...
Wow! I'm so glad you liked the cupcakes so much! I'm so jealous of your access to homegrown sweet potatoes. Thanks so much for all the props. You're so sweet!
Here is my post about your quinoa:
http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/03/quinoa-for-breakfast-part-1.html - March 21, 2008 at 1:03 PM
- LyB said...
My those look good! I'm an icing girl too so twice the icing sounds just perfect!
- March 22, 2008 at 11:46 AM
- Emily said...
I give them the thumbs up, too. Great job. I love all of these flavors together. And I love sweet potatoes. Mmmm...gargle.
- March 24, 2008 at 6:10 AM
- Anonymous said...
Thank you for sharing! I just bought a 10lb box of sweet potatoes from Costco (why?!?!?). Now I have a new recipe for at least 3 of those. Beautiful presentation too!
xoxox Amy - March 24, 2008 at 8:05 AM
- Rita Sella said...
looks yum and beautiful in presentation ^_^
- March 31, 2008 at 9:22 PM
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Join one of the classic battles that's defined our universe – it's the Fire Vs Ice slot
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JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 600 Blog Bookstore
There are many histories of photography in wartime: early images show cavalry standing at the
ready, troops marching, piles of munitions, heaps of food; later on (as late as
WWI) come actual scenes during the course of battle. War photography changes forever beginning in
the Spanish Civil War, and then of course WWII.
Looking through the WWI years in the Illustrated London News I experienced a creeping realization of a different sort of perspective in war photography: turning the camera to look behind the battle.
Turning the camera exactly around, away from the action, hasn't a good
history in itself. There are some great
examples: when the Golden Spike was
driven at Promontory Point in 1869 someone had the foresight to look the other
way and make a photo—it shows a vast plain, a long double ribbon of rail, a
long series of telephone poles receding into the horizon, and one man. It is
also a scene that looks pretty much the same today, if you took away the small
dedication center that is there. That
was the reality of the day, not all of those RR workers gathered around the two
hot locomotives, the cleanest of them toasting each other and the camera. (If
you look closely you can find some Chinese laborers in among the crowd and also
occasional bits of Confederate uniforms.)
Elsewhere in this blog I told the story of Ed Clark, the LIFE
magazine photographer who wheeled his camera away from where the hundreds of
other cameras were recording the removal of Franklin Roosevelt's casket from
But it is a different sort of turn-around that struck me for WWI. These are the photographs of the liminal spaces after the fight, the clean up, the gathering of spent ammo, the cleaning of the clothing, the care of the soldiers, the rehabilitation. And I'm not talking about the Matthew Brady after-battle battlefield photograph style. What I'm referring to is all of the "little" things that happen when the battles aren't being fought and the troops weren't on the move. There some images for thing that appeared in Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie and so on during the U.S. Civil War, but so far as I can tell the vast majority of them are drawings. Having looked through popular illustrated magazines that covered the Franco-Prussian War, the Spanish American War and all of the conflicts in-between, I just don't have much of a sense at all that this life was recorded very well photographically.
I can understand this—there's not that much glory in sandbagging Red Cross stations, or hauling away dead horses by the thousands, or cooking thousands of loaves of bread in primitive conditions; they certainly aren't a good case for a hearts-and-minds campaign. The camera has enough power to go 'round, giving and taking, usually at the same time.
But to my brain these photographs really come into being in the second half of WWI., and they tell an other, integral, more human story of that same war. The first image (above) shows two soldiers cleaning up cartridge cases after a fight—when you look closely at the photo you see that the place is littered with those cases. I suspect that there were hundreds of millions of these cases ejected from rifles. Billions, probably. I wonder how long it would take a thousand soldiers to shovel a billion shells into canvas bags? The picture reveals a very deep image of the ways of war at the most basic level.
The next photo is a "simple" image of clothing out for a dry—except of
course that the clothing lines go on and on, railroad tracks into the sun,
tended by hundreds of women, getting the shirts ready for the "men in the trenches", many of whom won't need those shirts by the
end of the month.
Many of these men and women wound up being consumed--this photo at right shows one of the ways how that happened. It is an extraordinary crater some 75 yards in circumference created by a massive shell. It is a massive image--brutal, lonely, and speaking the quiet of the end. And it was a different sort of image that people were used to seeing in war reporting.
These three photos appeared on only three successive pages of the 15 October 1917 issue of the Illustrated London News.


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Amended April 2005
Article I
Section 1. The name of this Commission shall be the Charter Commission for the City of Hopkins.
Article II
Definition Of Terms
- Section 1. For the purposes of these By-Laws, the terms defined in this section shall have the meanings given them.
- Section 2. "Commission" means the organization named in Article I created by the District Court, Fourth Judicial District, State of Minnesota, County of Hennepin pursuant to a request by the City Council of the City of Hopkins, Minnesota.
- Section 3. "City Council" means the elected officials constituting the Mayor and Councilmembers for the City of Hopkins, Minnesota.
- Section 4. "Member" means a duly appointed individual to the organization named in Article I.
- Section 5. "Charter" means the basic organizational document for the City of Hopkins, County of Hennepin, State of Minnesota, as approved by the electors on December 2, 1947, with amendments.
Article III
Commission Members
- Section 1. The Commission shall have eleven members appointed by the Chief Judge of the district court pursuant to state law.
- Section 2. Each member shall be a citizen of the State of Minnesota and a resident of the City of Hopkins.
- Section 3. The terms of office of each member shall be four years. Each member serves, however, until a successor is appointed and qualified.
- Section 4. If any member dies, resigns, or ceases to be a resident of the City of Hopkins, the member's office shall be deemed vacant, and a successor shall be appointed for his or her unexpired term.
- Section 5. Resignation from the Commission by any member must be submitted in writing to the Mayor.
Article IV
Officers And Employees
- Section 1. The officers of the Commission shall be the Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. The Secretary need not be a member of the Commission.
- Section 2. The term of office for all officers shall be two years on a calendar year basis.
- Section 3. The Chair shall be the presiding officer of the Commission. He or she shall preside at all meetings of the Commission, but shall have all of the same privileges of discussion, making motions and voting as do other members.
- Section 4. The Vice Chair shall, in the absence or disability of the Chair, perform the duties and exercise the powers of the Chair.
- Section 5. The Secretary shall attend all meetings of the Commission, and shall act as Clerk of such meetings and shall record all votes and the minutes of all proceedings. The Secretary shall give notice of all meetings of the Commission and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by the Commission.
- Section 6. There will be no monetary compensation to any members of the Commission.
- Section 7. Employees of the City of Hopkins may be requested to aid the Commission. Such requests shall be made by the Chair to the City Manager of Hopkins and such requests may be written or oral.
Article V
- Section 1. Meetings of the Commission shall be held in a public building located in the City of Hopkins.
- Section 2. Written notice of all meetings and copies of the minutes of each meeting shall be sent to all members. Written notice of meetings shall be mailed at least ten days prior to each meeting.
- Section 3. At any meeting of the Commission, a majority of the members shall constitute a quorum.
- Section 4. If the Secretary is absent from the meeting, the Chair shall appoint a Secretary pro tem for such meeting.
- Section 5. All meetings shall be conducted in accordance with Robert's Rules of Order Revised, except as otherwise provided in these By-Laws.
- Section 6. The members may from time to time determine the order of business for Commission meetings. The usual order of business at such meetings shall be as follows:
- Call to Order
- Roll Call
- Minutes of Previous Meeting
- Reports
- Consideration of Communications
- Unfinished Business
- New Business
- Adjournment
Article VI
Powers And Duties Of Commission
- Section 1. The Commission is created to promulgate changes to the Charter of the City of Hopkins, Minnesota, as revised, for the improvement in the management and operation of the City government.
- Section 2. The Commission shall act upon written requests for changes to said Charter as proposed by other persons who are either residents of the City of Hopkins or employees of the City of Hopkins.
- Section 3. The Commission shall be responsible for submitting recommended changes to said Charter for action by the City Council.
- Section 4. The Commission shall take no formal action upon any proposed changes to said Charter at the meeting at which said proposed changes were first submitted.
Article VII
Financial Matters
- Section 1. The Commission has no direct monetary funds.
- Section 2. The Commission shall submit by budget its monetary needs to the City Council for inclusion by said Council on the general tax assessment.
- Section 3. The fiscal year of the Commission shall be the calendar year.
Article VIII
Amendments To By-Laws
- Section 1. These By-Laws may be amended at any meeting of the Commission.
- Section 2. A majority vote of the members shall be necessary to adopt any amendment to these By-Laws.
- Section 3. In any instance where these By-Laws are in conflict with District Court, Fourth Judicial District orders, said Section of these By-Laws is void.


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Hey Mr. Green,
How can I convince others that household water conservation is important?
--Matthew in New Paltz, New York
Hey Matthew,
You better believe conservation is important: Waste precious water and you should be sentenced to take a cold shower with Dick Cheney. You can choose from gallons of arguments to convince people of this, but let's start with four points--pollution, wildlife, money, and stench.
When lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers contain less water (in part because more of it is irrigating lawns and dripping from faucets), pollutants become more concentrated. If we decrease water use, it could reduce the need for new dams and reservoirs that can mess up wildlife habitat.


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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:44:08 — 80.7MB) | Embed
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This month on Open Apple, we sit down with Mark Lemmert, co-founder of 6502 Workshop. Him and his partners (Mike Reimer, Bill Giggie, Robert Padovan, Gordon Mackay, and Galactagog) have been building Nox Archaist, a brand new story-driven tile-based role-playing game in the classical Ultima style. They're pushing the hardware as far as they can with this new engine, working to break new ground in scope, story, animation, sound, and music. Early builds look great, and we're really excited to see more!
Mark's journey with the Apple II parallels a lot of us. The machine sparked an interest in programming, and a fascination with RPGs and tile engines in particular. Nox Archaist is the fulfillment of that childhood dream to build such a game from scratch. Mark shares his war stories (that many of us can relate to) of strewing our childhood computers with half-baked game engines that were doomed from the start. As he and his team are proving, it's never too late to revive and achieve that dream.
KansasFest 2017 registration is now open! Early bird rates in effect as of this posting, so don't wait. Attendance is limited to 100 this year. Sign up now! Mark will be there and likely demonstrating Nox Archaist, so you won't want to miss that.
Meanwhile, Mike and Quinn yammer on about new hardware, new old games, old new games, and of course Woz. Also back this month is the controversial Softalk segment. Read along with us in issue #4!
More information on everything discussed in this episode, after the jump.
Continue reading "Open Apple #70 (April 2017) – 6502 Workshop, 1st-Person Lo-Res, Softalk #4"


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Why it's hard to be a banker on a salary alone
People who don't work in finance think bankers are all inordinately rich. This isn't necessarily the case - especially at the start.
When I started out in banking in 1999 I was on a $40k salary. I'm not quite sure how I survived on that in NY City, but I did. I certainly wasn't living the "banking life." I was subsisting: staying late and having dinner at work on weekdays to save money. Sometimes I'd have dinner at work on weekends too - for the same reason.
I know people live on less, but it's not easy. After tax, $40k doesn't go far in NYC. My entire paycheck was spent almost before it hit my bank account.
Fortunately, though, there was also a bonus. Back then, I used my bonuses to pay down my college loans. My salary was for living (frugally); my bonuses were for reducing my debts. Within a few years, those bonuses meant I paid my college debts off in full.
As time went on, my salary rose. From $40k, it went to $100k and then to $150k. Given my past frugal habits, you might've thought I'd be able to save money from this higher salary, but I didn't. I started spending more. In fact, I started spending my whole salary and even using a proportion of my bonus to cover my monthly expenses.
Sadly, this is a pretty common theme in finance. When you work in banking, your salary and your bonus often go up linearly, but your expenses and your cost of living go up exponentially (especially when you have children).
It's called the burn rate - the rate at which you burn through your money. When I was in banking, my burn rate was $175k+. That's low: even when I was spending "big" I was still pretty frugal. I have friends whose burn rates are $350k+: they need to earn $650k just to stay flat. Very few banks will pay you a $650k salary, so once you hit that level you're almost certainly using your bonus too.
How does this happen? Tom Wolfe gives a steer in Bonfire of the Vanities. His banker protagonist, Sherman McCoy recalls where he spent last year's paycheck, and it goes like this:
"I'm already going broke on a million dollars a year! The appalling figures came popping up into his brain. Last year his income had been $980,000. But he had to pay out $21,000 a month for the $1.8 million loan he had taken out to buy the apartment. What was $21,000 a month to someone making a million a year? That was the way he had thought of it at the time-and in fact, it was merely a crushing, grinding burden-that was all! It came to $252,000 a year, none of it deductible, because it was a personal loan, not a mortgage. (The cooperative boards in Good Park Avenue Buildings like his didn't allow you to take out a mortgage on your apartment.) So, considering the taxes, it required $420,000 in income to pay the $252,000. Of the $560,000 remaining of his income last year, $44,400 was required for the apartment's monthly maintenance fees; $116,000 for the house on Old Drover's Mooring Lane in Southampton ($84,000 for mortgage payment and interest, $18,000 for heat, utilities, insurance and repairs, $6,000 for lawn and hedge cutting, $8,000 for taxes.[…more expenses I don't feel like typing out…] The tab for furniture and clothes had come to about $65,000; and there was little hope of reducing that, since Judy was, after all, a decorator and had to keep things up to par. The servants…came to $62,000 a year…the abysmal truth was that he had spent more than $980,000 last year. Well, obviously he could cut down here and there-but not nearly enough-if the worst happened!
Sherman was on the hedonic treadmill. I've written about it here before: it's very easy to get on and very difficult to get off. When you're on it, you find yourself not just wanting but needing certain things. Things you think you can't do without. A better house, a better car, summer in the Hamptons or the south of France, nights out, new clothes, a second home.
I see it all the time. It's not your fault: it's the human condition. Humans quickly adapt to circumstances and then want more. We look around and see our friends doing something and it becomes normal.
What you need to remember though, is that just because you can afford to buy something this doesn't mean you should. Banking is not a stable career choice: people often get downsized and you could easily find yourself with expenses you can't sustain and debts you can't pay off.
For some, the awakening happens too late. When they are in their forties, with little saved up.
I spoke to a friend who's 58 recently, he had lost a lot when Lehman went down, and then had to pay for his kids' weddings. There he was, theoretically just a few years from retirement but needing a job that pays $500k because he had no savings.
Stop spending your bonus. Start saving your salary. Get off the treadmill, before you get thrown off.
The author is a former managing director at a top US bank and blogger at the site What I Learned on Wall Street (WilowWallStreet.com).
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you'd like to share? Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it's offensive or libelous (in which case it won't.)


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That hopefully reassures you that our dog training techniques work as we have grown and continue to grow as a result of our unique system of dog training. We have approximately 45 franchises in Australia and New Zealand, and we get together on a regular basis both in conjunction with Head Office and in smaller groups to fine tune our skills and keep up-to-date with techniques.
As your dog trainer, we can relate to some of the more local problems you may have; such as your dog exhibiting unwanted behaviours.
Home dog training has been proven to work, as you and your dog are in familiar, relaxed surroundings and therefore can learn more quickly and effectively. Some dogs we see are either naughty in group training classes and have been "expelled" or are as good as gold in a classroom environment but misbehave at home or outside.
Click here to find out why.
We know, it might sound unbelievable. Look at the testimonials …
Yes, this job can be hard at times but we love the work and do it because we want to prevent you becoming frustrated and perhaps re-homing your dog.
You and I will work together, and We will talk to you about how your dog's behaviour can be changed, and show you what to do. However, ONLY YOU can truly change your dog's behaviour as, after I leave, you must continue to practice the techniques and put in the work so that any changes are long lasting.


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Sometimes users want to maintain their own web pages. You can configure public information directories that let all the users on a server create home pages and other documents without your intervention.
With this system, clients can access your server with a certain URL that the server recognizes as a public information directory. For example, suppose you choose the prefix ~ and the directory public_html. If a request comes in for http://www.sun.com/~jdoe/aboutjane.html, the server recognizes that ~jdoe refers to a users' public information directory. It looks up jdoe in the system's user database and finds Jane's home directory. The server then looks at ~/jdoe/public_html/aboutjane.html.
To configure your server to use public directories, follow these steps:
From the virtual server page, click the Content Handling tab.
Click Document Directories.
Under User Document Directories, choose a user URL prefix.
The usual prefix is ~ because the tilde character is the standard UNIX/Linux prefix for accessing a user's home directory.
Choose the subdirectory in the user's home directory where the server looks for HTML files.
A typical directory is public_html.
Designate the password file.
The server needs to know where to look for a file that lists users on your system. The server uses this file to determine valid user names and to find their home directories. If you use the system password file for this purpose, the server uses standard library calls to look up users. Alternatively, you can create another user file to look up users. You can specify that user file with an absolute path.
Each line in the file should have this structure (the elements in the /etc/passwd file that aren't needed are indicated with *):
Choose whether to load the password database at startup.
Click Save.
For more information, see the online help for the User Document Directories page.
Another way to give users separate directories is to create a URL mapping to a central directory that all of your users can modify.
In some situations a system administrator may want to restrict which user accounts are able to publish content by means of user document directories. To restrict a user's publishing rights, add a trailing slash to the user's home directory path in the /etc/passwd file:
jdoe::1234:1234:John Doe:/home/jdoe:/bin/sh
jdoe::1234:1234:John Doe:/home/jdoe/:/bin/sh
After you make this modification, Web Server will not serve pages from this user's directory. The browser requesting the URI receives a "404 File Not Found" error and a 404 error will be logged to the web server access log. No error will be recorded to the errors log.
If, at a later time, you decide to allow this user to publish content, remove the trailing slash from the /etc/passwd entry, then restart the web server.
You also have the option of loading the entire password file on startup. If you choose this option, the server loads the password file into memory when it starts, making user lookups much faster. If you have a very large password file, however, this option can use too much memory.


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Francisco López - Absolute Noise Ensemble
Double CD from Madrid's Francisco López released on Blossoming Noise in 2006.
Francisco has been at the forefront of expanding the possibilities and potential of sound art for a very long time. He has toured the world several times, collaborated with over 150 artists and released on over 300 labels whilst 'trying to reach an ideal of absolute concrète music'.
This set contains live collaborations with the likes of Zbigniew Karkowski, Oren Ambarchi, Masami Akita, Joe Colley, Koji Asano and Michael Northam and source material manipulations of and entire host. Full details can be found elsewhere.
You should also visit the Sound Archive of Experimental Music and Sound Art that was created by Francisco in 2010 to allow the streaming of an extraordinary wealth of material from all of your favourite adventurers and those that you don't know (yet). Clear a few months of your life and dive in. You won't regret the journey!
Absolute Noise Ensemble


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In the next installment of "My First Car" Compton MC YG reveals what he slid into once he had the money to get off of the bus.
"It was a white BMW 745Li. White on white. I bought that with the 'Toot It and Boot It' money. I went straight to the [dealership]," he tells TheUrbanDaily.com. "Before that I ain't had no car, no license. I was on the bus [or] carpooling with the homies. One of the females I was talking to was driving me around before that."
The new luxury whip drew a lot of attention for the "My Krazy Life" rapper and he had to take some…err…precautions when riding around. Watch the video to see what YG did for security.
YG Explains "My Crazy Life" Album Cover Mugshot [EXCLUSIVE]
Sevyn Streeter & YG Break Up To Make Up On "nEXt (Remix)" [NEW MUSIC]
DJ Mustard "Dreams Big" In Sean John Clothing Campaign [VIDEO]
Like TheUrbanDaily.com on Facebook to stay updated with the latest entertainment news and original interviews!

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By Daniel Hurst
Australian boys and girls are equally likely to value school, bucking an international trend of male students holding more negative views, a major study shows.
But the gap between attitudes of socially disadvantaged and advantaged high school students is more severe in Australia.
Nearly 17,000 Australian 15-year-old students took part in the study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Program for International Student Assessment.
''The latter gap is more pronounced than in many other countries so Australia really needs to think hard how to provide an environment for students from disadvantaged social backgrounds that gives them confidence in school and the sense that what they learn relates to their current and future lives,'' Andreas Schleicher, special adviser on education policy to the OECD's secretary-general, told Fairfax Media.
When asked whether school had done little to prepare students for adult life, 81.4 per cent of Australian boys in the study and 81.3 per cent of girls disagreed – a difference of just 0.1 percentage points.
Across the 34 OECD countries, the gender gap was an average of nearly 4 percentage points.
The highest gender gaps on this question were in France (8.1 percentage points) and Mexico (8.7 percentage points).
Gender also made little difference in Australian students' views on whether school had taught them useful job skills and given them the confidence to make decisions.
But Australian girls (93.5 per cent) were a little more likely than boys (91.1 per cent) to dispute the claim school had been a waste of time.
University of Technology Sydney education head Rosemary Johnston said it was ''very encouraging'' that such a high percentage of 15-year-olds saw the value of school.
Professor Johnston said the Australian community placed school in high regard and gender did not appear to be a factor in those attitudes.
''I'm pleased with these results; I'm not surprised that there's no gender gap,'' Professor Johnston said. ''I think it's a reflection of Australian cultural attitudes and that's good but my concern is always for that 10 per cent, always for that 15 per cent, where we need to do better.''
When the results were broken down by socio-economic status, the study found a gap of up to 12.5 percentage points between the top quarter and the bottom quarter of students.
Some 88.3 per cent of students in the top quarter denied school had done little to prepare them for adulthood, compared with 75.8 per cent in the bottom quarter.
Professor Schleicher, also OECD deputy director for education, said Australia came out of the study ''rather well'', although he pointed out room for improvement.
''It is noteworthy that attitudes towards school in Australia tend to be more positive in private than in public schools and a lot more positive among socially advantaged students than in socially disadvantaged students,'' he said.
''The one thing that I found also interesting is that in Australia the attitudes of students with an immigrant background to school is basically the same as for those without an immigrant background.''
Professor Johnston, who runs programs for disadvantaged children, saw a need to continue efforts to help students who were struggling.
''Even the kids that aren't achieving in some of the programs that I run value school,'' she said.
''What we have to do is make them able to do better so that they don't feel disadvantaged.''


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Between land clearing, construction, and tree care, tons of wood waste is produced around the world. Managing this wood waste is one thing – turning it into a useful by-product requires innovative solutions, like the ones you get from Vermeer.
Vermeer horizontal grinders, tub grinders, brush chippers and stump cutters allow contractors to quickly process wood waste into useful mulch, biofuel or compost-ready fiber. They're built tough to meet your needs. Plus, Vermeer factory-trained dealers will be there to provide parts, service and support when you need it.


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You know those little things that start to bother you when you think about them, but don't really matter otherwise? This issue of On the Download features a few little pet peeves of mine in the world of digital gaming - things that may upset some people, enrage others, or you'll just shrug it off if it doesn't effect you.
First, what brought on this rant in the first place? Funny question, and one that many people may not even notice - but the Playstation Network has started charging TAX to nearly every state in the United States. Not normally a big deal when you consider buying things that are packaged by people, delivered by trucks that use our roads, processed by shipping plants that take up space on land, etc. But digital content?
Why would digital content require taxation? New digital laws are considering adding this to just about everything people buy on the Internet. Some states already charge tax for things on Amazon.com or other online retailers - but something that's purely digital? I've never seen an insert booklet arrive at my door for Hoard, or a nice box to display the art from Trine on my bookshelf - so what gives?
Many states; my own state (Colorado), Nick's state (Pennsylvania), and other states (included: New Jersey) are all charging tax on digital items purchase from the PSN store on your Playstation 3 or PSP. Read the screen carefully the next time you "check out" at the PSN store and let us know if you suffer from digital tax rage, too.
The reason this makes me so angry: I go out to a store to buy a PSN card for $20, and go home to buy a game that should cost $19.99 - only to find out I don't have enough digital money to buy a digital game thanks to digital tax.
This little tidbit of frustration brought about another annoyance in the downloadable world - DRM. DRM is "Digital Rights Management" that basically is the excuse many game developers use to load up your computer with what might be considered spyware in order to monitor how you play their games, or adding restrictions on purchased materials, etc.
Unstable internet connection? No game for you.
The idea behind DRM is a noble one - it's supposed to allow game developers to keep the dishonest gamers from illegally downloading and enjoying their product. If you made a product you'd want to see legitimate sales, right? Sure.
The only issue is, DRM doesn't work. Gamers that want to steal things online will find a way to pick apart your DRM to get around it. That means the only people being punished are your loyal customers who have paid good money to play a game. Ubisoft is the most guilty mainstream company, but many others have loaded your machines with garbage that restricts your gameplay, whether you know its there or not.
These are just a few of my annoyances with the digital world at the moment. For the PSN Tax reason, I'm appreciating Microsoft's strange money system - you can't charge tax on a non-monetary number associated to content. That's the same reason Microsoft points go "on sale" periodically. I suppose I'll take what I can get before the whole Internet is taxed into society.
What causes you rage in digital gaming? Something as political as taxes, or something else? Something like a quality control issue you've noticed? There are a million ways to rub people the wrong way. Find things you love and hate about downloadable content or digital gaming and blog about it.


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Are You Frustrated?
Are you frustrated with all the special foods for dogs with sensitive stomachs and not being able to cure your dog's chronic diarrhea and upset stomach symptoms?
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One of the first changes you will notice when you start feeding the BARF Diet®, is a reduction in stomach upset and diarrhea as well as smaller, firmer stool. When those chronic poop problems suddenly disappear or improve dramatically, you will no longer need constant vet visits, antibiotics, and carpet cleanings. Our natural, healthy, raw diet will supply your pet with all the nutrients that other diets are missing. Our BARF® dogs get compliments all the time about their beautiful, healthy trim bodies…and your dog will too!
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[Bryan] got his hands on a solar panel and decided to take it on the road rather than throwing it on the roof of the house. On sunny days it will top off the car battery, letting him use his stereo in the middle of nowhere without needing to keep the engine running. Instead of buying a ready-made solution he chose to design and build his own charging circuitry.
The charger uses an Arduino, which draws its own power from the panel via a regulator. It senses the voltage level of the battery and the available juice from the panel, connecting or disconnecting it from the electrical system as necessary. The system includes a set of LED indicators, which he installed in the dashboard near the cigarette lighter. This also gave him an excuse to install a voltmeter which uses a 2.5 digit seven segment display to read out the battery voltage. You can see a brief overview after the break.


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Enter search terms to find related medical topics, multimedia and more.
Radiograph of an Eclectus parrot with intestinal carcinoma.
Courtesy of Dr. Sharman Hoppes.


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Work in an MIT lab may help energy companies withdraw millions of additional barrels of oil from beneath the sea floor.
Typically, companies recover only 30 percent to 40 percent of the oil in a given reservoir. Since a single reservoir may contain a billion barrels total, increasing that "recovery efficiency" by even a single percentage point would mean a lot of additional oil.
Toward that end, Assistant Professor David Mohrig of earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and Carlos Pirmez, a research geologist from Shell International Exploration and Production Inc., have been examining one type of geological formation of interest to industry -- channels filled with highly permeable and porous sedimentary deposits that extend deep below the sea floor.
These structures form when sediment-laden currents flow off the continental shelf and into channels on the deep-ocean floor, dropping sand, silt and clay as they go. Over many thousands to millions of years, the channels can become filled with porous sandstone covered by impermeable mud -- a perfect trap for oil and gas that seep up from below.
Over the past 20 years, energy companies have withdrawn significant amounts of oil from such buried channels. But they could extract even more if they understood the channels' internal structure.
"If we could understand how they develop, then we would also understand a great deal about what they're composed of -- the distribution of clay, silt, sand and even gravel that they're built out of," Mohrig said. With a better understanding of porosity and permeability within a channel, companies could more accurately determine how much oil is present, where it is located and how quickly it can be withdrawn.
Researchers have been re-creating the formation of submarine channels in Mohrig's Morphodynamics Laboratory using a 5-meter-square sand table.
The experiments have yielded results that the collaborators call "counterintuitive." On a map, the sinuous submarine channels look like meandering surface rivers. However, they exhibit behaviors that are markedly different and -- to us surface-dwellers -- totally unexpected.
The behaviors stem from differences in density. Water in a river is about a thousand times denser than the fluid it flows through -- air. As a result, a flow tends to remain confined to its riverbed, escaping over the banks only rarely. In contrast, the current running through a submarine channel may be only 10 percent denser than the seawater around it. Thus, the current can spill out of its channel more easily and frequently than a river might.
That difference explains several unexpected findings. For example, at times the bottom of the current sloshes almost all the way up the edge of the channel and then back down again. And at bends, the current may go straight, pouring up and over the bank and dropping its sediment outside the channel -- an outcome with important implications for energy companies as they plan to drill.
Because of their close and continuing involvement in the scientific investigation, the Shell researchers are prepared to put the research findings to practical use. "The experiments that David is doing have never really been done before, so we're learning new things about how channels are put together," Pirmez said. "We're getting new ideas, new concepts that may change the way we think about the subsurface."
The result should be improved predictions, reduced uncertainty and more efficient recovery from these oil-rich submarine formations.
This research was supported by Shell International Exploration and Production Inc. through the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.
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Patients who receive the anti-platelet medication clopidogrel following an acute coronary syndrome (such as heart attack) appear to be at greater risk of a heart attack or death in the first 90 days after stopping clopidogrel treatment, according to a new study.
Randomized trials have established the effectiveness of clopidogrel therapy following hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) for patients treated either medically or with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI - procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries). Current cardiology guidelines recommend clopidogrel therapy for ideally up to 1 year for patients treated medically or with a bare metal stent, according to background information in the article. It is unknown whether there may be a "rebound effect" or concentration of thrombotic events shortly after stopping treatment with clopidogrel, as has been found for patients after long-term aspirin therapy.
P. Michael Ho, M.D., Ph.D., of the Denver VA Medical Center, Denver, and colleagues assessed the incidence and timing of death or acute myocardial infarction (AMI; heart attack) after stopping treatment with clopidogrel in a group of 3,137 patients with ACS discharged from 127 Veterans Affairs hospitals. Average follow-up after stopping treatment with clopidogrel was 196 days for medically treated patients with ACS without stents (n = 1,568) and 203 days for patients with ACS treated with PCI (n = 1,569).
Among the medically-treated patients, the average duration of clopidogrel treatment was 302 days. The researchers found that all-cause death (n = 155) or AMI (n = 113) occurred in 17.1 percent (n = 268) of patients, with 60.8 percent (n = 163) of events occurring during 0 to 90 days, 21.3 percent (n = 57) occurring during 91 to 180 days, and 9.7 percent (n = 26) occurring during 181 to 270 days after stopping treatment with clopidogrel. Further analysis indicated that the interval of 0 to 90 days was associated with nearly twice the risk of adverse events after stopping treatment with clopidogrel compared with the interval of 91 to 180 days.
Among the PCI-treated patients, average duration of clopidogrel treatment was 278 days. All-cause death (n = 68) or AMI (n = 56) occurred in 7.9 percent (n = 124) of the patients, with 58.9 percent (n = 73) of the events occurring during 0 to 90 days, 23.4 percent (n = 29) occurring during 91 to 180 days, and 6.5 percent (n = 8) occurring during 181 to 270 days after stopping treatment with clopidogrel. After adjustment for total duration of clopidogrel treatment following hospital discharge, the interval of 0 to 90 days after stopping treatment with clopidogrel was associated with an 82 percent increased risk of adverse events compared with the interval of 91 to 180 days.
The authors write that there is in vitro and physiological evidence to support a short-term increase in platelet activation and associated thrombotic risk immediately after stopping antiplatelet therapy.
"There are several potential implications of this study. Even though the absolute event rates were low, the relative increase in adverse events in the early period after stopping treatment with clopidogrel was nearly 2-fold higher than later periods. In addition, the absolute number of adverse events attributable to this event clustering is significant when extrapolated to a population level, considering the number of patients admitted with ACS and discharged with posthospital treatment with clopidogrel therapy both in the United States and worldwide."
"These findings, however, do not necessarily offset the benefits of clopidogrel therapy. Rather, additional studies are needed to confirm the presence of the event clustering after cessation of clopidogrel and to better understand the pathophysiology of this phenomenon. If these findings are subsequently confirmed, guideline recommendations may need to be reconsidered in terms of duration of clopidogrel therapy and perhaps the means of drug cessation," the researchers conclude.
Journal reference: JAMA. 2008;299[5]:532-539.
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CAUTION: SPOILERS INCLUDED – There was no rest for Dan Henderson after his UFC 93 win over Rich Franklin in Dublin, Ireland, as he had to catch a plane back to Las Vegas to see the eight men who he would have the opportunity to coach on The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK.
By Thomas Gerbasi
CAUTION: SPOILERS INCLUDED – There was no rest for Dan Henderson after his UFC 93 win over Rich Franklin in Dublin, Ireland, as he had to catch a plane back to Las Vegas to see the eight men who he would have the opportunity to coach on The Ultimate Fighter: US vs UK.
"My goals are just to beat the hell out of the UK guys," said Henderson on arriving back in the States. But after last week's elimination bouts in Liverpool, England, it was clear that the UK team coached by Michael Bisping was going to be a formidable one, so the 16 US fighters were going to have their work cut out for them as they reduced themselves to eight.
Unfortunately, some of the 16 looked like they were going to eliminate themselves before the fights even started, as welterweight Jason Pierce fainted from cutting too much weight, welterweight Christian Fulgium was also fading from his weight cut, and lightweight John David Shackleford was found to have a herpes lesion on his forehead.
Needless to say, Shackleford was immediately eliminated from the competition, and when Fulgium weighed in at 173 and was unable to take off the final two pounds, he was ousted from the competition as well. Luckily, Pierce made weight, but UFC President Dana White still wasn't happy.
"This is the worst start to a season in the history of the show," said White.
Thankfully, the opening fight got the competition off to a better beginning, as training partners and friends Mark Miller (10-4) and Kevin Knabjian (10-3-1) squared off in a welterweight bout. After a competitive first round, the action kicked into gear in the second when Knabjian dropped Miller to the mat and went for a submission. Miller escaped, and moments later, he tagged Knabjian and hurt him. Miller didn't let his friend off the hook, and referee Steve Mazzagatti halted the bout in the second round.
Another action-packed fight saw Temecula's Richie Whitson (4-0) show off a well-rounded game before submitting gutsy Iowan Paul Bird (4-1) with a rear naked choke in the first round.
Also in lightweight action, Santino DeFranco (13-4) took a frightening beating on the mat for much of the first round from Waylon Lowe (5-2), but in the second round, DeFranco roared back, landing a hard knee to the head before following up with a takedown and a quick rear naked choke that force Lowe to tap out.
Welterweight Steve Berger, a UFC veteran was brought in to face Pierce in the next bout, and Pierce showed few ill effects from the weight cut as he pounded out a decision win in a fight forced to use the third sudden victory round.
The third lightweight to earn his way into the house for Team US was Cameron Dollar, who survived some ferocious ground and pound from Tommy Hayden before submitting his foe with a rear naked choke in the second stanza. And in the final match of the week, Damarques Johnson (13-6) showed an impressive ground attack in scoring a first round TKO of veteran Ray Elbe (13-6).
There are two spots to fill for the team though, and the pre-fight eliminations of Fulgium and Shackleford have left welterweight Kiel Reid and lightweight Jason Dent without anyone to fight. To compensate, White brought in Frankie Lester and Rob Browning, the brother of season eight sparkplug Junie Browning to compete against Reid and Dent, respectively, next week.
After two weeks, the following fighters have earned a spot in the Ultimate Fighter house for this season:
Mark Miller
Jason Pierce
Damarques Johnson
Richie Whitson
Santino DeFranco
Cameron Dollar
David Faulkner
Dean Amasinger
Nick Osipczak
James Wilks
Ross Pearson
Martin Stapleton
Jeff Lawson
Andre Winner
For weekly recaps of The Ultimate Fighter, as well as fighter profiles and a blog from UK coach Michael Bisping, stay tuned to UFC.com.
UFC Performance Institute
Dana White On The Opening Of UFC PI Mexico


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ALL CAPS: To set or not to set?
by Ilene Strizver
One of the most common detriments to typographic readability is the overuse of ALL CAPS. Setting text in all caps (especially lengthy blocks) decreases the ease, speed, and appeal of reading, and can cause a reader to quickly lose interest, albeit without realizing why.
What causes this? The most common explanation is that we don't read letter-by-letter, but rather by word shapes, which are in part created by the position and frequency of ascending and descending characters. But in all cap settings, such word shapes are lost, making it more challenging, and slower going, to read. Some recent research has disputed this 'word shape' explanation, but it is widely acknowledged that all cap settings are more difficult to read than lowercase. What we read most often (mostly lowercase) is what we read more easily.
So when, if ever, is it appropriate, or even desirable, to use all capitals? The use of all cap settings for running text (differentiated from abbreviations, acronyms, company names and other branding functions, etc.) can seem appealing because of the symmetry and emphasis it creates. But unless you are setting only a few words, such as very short headlines, subheads and phrases, readability will suffer.
Another notion in favor of the use of upper- and lowercase vs. all caps, is that lowercase takes up less space. Because more words can be put on a line, a block of copy looks shorter and seems like less material to be read.
These cautions regarding all caps hold even more true for emails and other uses on the Web (including blogs, comments and other types of postings), where it is considered SHOUTING, which is unprofessional and a sign of poor etiquette (or, netiquette).
So the next time you are tempted to set text in all capitals, weigh the pros and cons, and consciously make your decision to use all cap settings – if at all – sparingly.
- Editor's Note:Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a typographic consultant, designer and writer specializing in all aspects of typographic communication. She conducts Gourmet Typography workshops internationally. Read more about typography in her latest literary effort, Type Rules! The designer's guide to professional typography, 4th edition, published by Wiley & Sons, Inc. This article was commissioned and approved by Monotype Imaging Inc.


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Tax Relief / Exemptions
Homestead Revaluation Exemption
Known as the owner occupied exemption, this exemption lowers the equalized assessed value of your property by $6,000. To receive this exemption, you must:
- Have lived on the property on or before January 1st of the tax year.
- Have the exemption initiated by the Township Assessors Office.
- No annual application required.
Homestead Improvement Exemption
This exemption defers for up to four years any increase in the assessment of your property due to an addition or other improvement to your home for which the township assessor would add value. A maximum of $25,000 of assessed value may be deferred under this program. (effective January 1, 1998) The Township Assessor's Office initiates this exemption. The property has to be the taxpayer's principal residence. No annual application required.
Senior Citizen Tax Deferral Program
This program allows qualified senior citizens to defer all or part of the property taxes on their personal residence. It's a form of a loan with a 6% interest rate, which is to be repaid after the taxpayer's death or at the time the property is sold. Each year, the County Assessment Office mails information to all taxpayers receiving a senior homestead exemption informing them of the program and its deadlines.
To qualify you must:
- Be 65 or older by June 1 of the tax year.
- Have a maximum household income of $55,000.
- Have lived in the property or other qualifying property for at least 3 years, except for periods in which you may have resided temporarily in a nursing or sheltered care home.
- Own the property which must be used exclusively for residential purposes. This includes a condominium or a dwelling unit in a multi-dwelling building that is owned and operated as a cooperative. Please note that joint ownership under this program is limited to you and your spouse.
- Not owe any delinquent property taxes on the property.
Note: The filing deadline for the program is March 1 of the tax year.
How much may be deferred?
Eligible residents may defer part or all of their property taxes for each year in which they qualify. The maximum, which may be deferred (including interest and fees), is 80% of the taxpayer's equity in the property.
When must deferred taxes be paid?
Property taxes, which are deferred under this program, become due when the residence is sold or upon the death of the taxpayer. A surviving spouse who is at least age 55 within six months of the taxpayer's death may continue the deferral.
How does one apply for this tax deferral program?
Application for the Senior Citizens Real Estate Tax Deferral Program must be made each year. The applications include:
- A request for information about the taxpayer, his or her income and the property for which the deferral is being sought.
- A request that any joint owners must agree to the deferral. Presentation of evidence of adequate insurance on the property.
- Completion of an agreement which sets out the conditions of the tax deferral, including the maximum amount which can be deferred, the interest rate to be charged, and arrangements for repaying the "loan."
Senior Homestead Exemption
This exemption lowers the equalized assessed value of your property by $5,000, and may be claimed in addition to the Homestead Exemption. To receive this exemption, you must:
- Have lived on the property on or before January 1 of the tax year.
- Have reached age 65 during the tax year.
- Apply for the exemption at the Assessor's Office. You will need to bring a copy of the deed to the property and proof of age with you when you apply. Application required in first year only. The application is maintained automatically after initial filing year.
Senior Assessment Freeze Exemption
This exemption freezes the taxable assessment on your property, but does not freeze the tax rate. This exemption allows seniors who are 65 years of age or older during the assessment year with a total household income of $65,000 or less to freeze the assessed value of their home at a base year value and prevent any increase due to inflation. The base year is the year prior to the year you first qualify and apply for the exemption. You must file an application by September of every year if you expect to receive the exemption. A "base year" is established for which the EAV (equalized assessed value) is "frozen." The "base amount" will change if improvements are added. Exemption amount is the difference between "frozen" base EAV and the current year EAV.
Returning Veterans' Homestead Exemption
This exemption provides a one-time $5,000 reduction in a property's equalized assessed value (EAV) to qualifying veterans who return from active duty in an armed conflict involving the armed forces of the United States. To receive this exemption, the veteran must file an application upon their return home.
Disabled Persons' Homestead Exemption
This exemption provides a $2,000 reduction in a property's EAV to a qualifying property owned by a disabled person. A disabled person must file an annual application by the county's due date to continue to receive this exemption.
Disabled Veterans' Standard Homestead Exemption
This exemption provides a reduction in a property's EAV to a qualifying property owned by a veteran with a service-connected disability certified by the U. S Department of Veterans' Affairs. A. If the veteran has a service-connected disability of 30% or more but less than 50%, then the annual exemption is $2,500; if the veteran has a service-connected disability of 50% or more but less than 70%, then the annual exemption is $5,000; and if the veteran has a service connected disability of 70% or more, then the residential property is exempt from taxation under this Code.
Disabled Veterans' Homestead Exemption
This exemption provides up to a $70,000 reduction in assessed value for federally-approved specially adapted housing and will continue to be available through the local Veterans' Affairs Office. A disabled person's or disabled veteran's property can receive only one of the following exemptions each year: Disabled Veterans' Exemption (35 ILCS 200/15-165), Disabled Persons' Homestead Exemption (35 ILCS 200/ 15-168) or the Disabled Veterans' Standard Homestead Exemption (35 ILCS 200/15-169).
Please direct additional questions regarding exemptions to the Supervisor of Assessments office at 672-6910.


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TechRadar Verdict
Despite some niggles, the SR8's HD quality, capacity and ease of use will undoubtedly entice newbies away from digital tape
- +
Great handling and ergonomics
Lots of good features and connectivity
HD clips are excellent in good light
- -
Manual control can be fiddly
Mic suffers from wind noise
CMOS creates lower light issues
Why you can trust TechRadar
Having spearheaded the high-definition video revolution with HDV, Sony is again pushing the technological frontier with its support for AVCHD, the format that uses a very efficient MPEG4 compression system to cram huge amounts of high-quality pictures and sounds into very small spaces.
With the number of tapeless, not to mention solid-state, camcorders increasing with each new day, is Sony's HDR-SR8, along with its sibling models the SR5 and SR7, set to hammer yet another nail in the coffin of tape-based formats like DV and even HDV?
On first impressions, the camcorder looks no different to a tape-based model thanks to its most notable feature - the whopping great 100GB HDD (hard-disk drive) - being hidden away inside the body. It's other media for recording both video and stills is the Memory Stick PRODuo.
Yet, despite its size and half-kilo weight, the SR8 isn't overloaded with buttons and dials, given that most connections are provided on the separate docking and charger station.
Making menu selections and playing back movies and stills requires that you poke the LCD screen with your forefinger rather than fiddle with manual controls. It's nice that the frame of the LCD screen offers secondary REC Start/Stop, zooming and menu 'Home' buttons, especially if you elect to monitor things via the 16:9 LCD screen rather than the somewhat inadequate colour viewfinder.
Inside the LCD screen recess can be found the Memory Stick slot and a couple of other buttons providing users with a one-stop Easy operation over-ride, as well as a master Play button for instant reviewing of movie clips and stills.
On the left of the lens barrel (as you hold it) is a wide 'Cam Ctrl' thumbwheel which can be used to make changes to focus, aperture, shutter speed, and so on. Where focus is particularly concerned, it's not perfect but it's better than having to attempt it with a tiny device at the rear.
As for sound, the upper body is occupied largely by an upward-facing 5.1ch microphone designed to provide surround sound pickup. The adjacent hot accessory shoe is designed for use in connecting a video light or, if you rather, an optional external microphone.
A nice touch is the addition of what Sony calls a 'jack cover' - a sliding knob which opens a door revealing the Composite digital and A/V output connectors near the rear of the body. Up front, a couple of flaps provide access to the headphone output and external mic input sockets. The usual Power On/Off and Mode dial, together with Photo Shoot button and tiny Zoom toggle switch, are at the back as you'd expect.
Sony's generous 1/2.9in CMOS sensor is designed to pack a lot of detail into images that are destined for a new generation of HD television screens when using one of the two supplied digital connections - HDMI and Component.
With each model, in a series that includes the SR5 and SR7, comes the Sony Handycam Station - a docking base which also carries additional connections (such as the Component output and USB 2.0 socket) not found on the camcorder itself.
At 10:1, the optical zoom is very reasonable, especially when used in combination with the cam's OIS (optical image stabilisation). It's also good to see Sony not going over the top with digital zoom, given that this is only 20x.
The ability to record either high definition in the AVCHD (MPEG4-AVC/H.264) format or DVD-quality MPEG2 standard-definition in either 16:3 widescreen or traditional 4:3 is a definite bonus, especially for those users whose PCs can't yet cope with HD inputs.
Sony's touch-screen control system has its detractors but, in truth, the only disadvantage is that the LCD screen gets mucky very quicky. Although it's a bit more difficult to make changes while actually recording, it's useful to point at a thumbnail image in order to play it, or to tell the system which setting to adjust. Graphics are clear, and a 'home' button gets you back to the menu page quickly.
Manual control is a bit more difficult, however, and it's a bit of fumble trying to adjust the focus wheel with the LCD fully opened - you just can't see the Manual activation button when viewing the screen. Shoot in Easy mode and you'll get great colour, contrast ratio and lifelike images. The auto circuits are quick and responsive, too. It's a compromise, of course, and it would be nice to have a manual focus ring.
What's useful is the ability to shoot 6.1 megapixel stills to the Memory Stick. In selecting this mode, the cam switches to a slightly wider 4:3 ratio, and when shooting video (in either mode) it's possible to shoot stills simultaneously, albeit at the reduced resolution of 4.3MP.
Thanks to digital processing, the Smooth Slow Rec function puts roughly the first 10 seconds of a clip into a buffer and then produces a respectable slow motion playback right before your eyes.
The 5.1ch surround sound recording quality from the built-in is quite impressive - even in stereo. Separation and presence is good when monitoring on headphones and when playing back on a good audio system.
Where the audio disappoints, however, is when recording outdoors. The slightest whisper of wind impacts on the mic, with the result that an otherwise good soundtrack contains bangs and bumps. To be fair to Sony, this is a common problem with many competing products.
The downside of using CMOS image sensors rather than CCDs in camcorders is that they're more prone to picture noise, and all the more evident when applying heavy MPEG4 and MPEG2 compression, both of which are on offer here.
While the SR8's low-light performance isn't quite as good as Panasonic's 3CCD SDR-H250 and SDR-H20 models - both of which are comparable 'hybrid' HDD/Memory Card cams - it's certainly good enough for general home video applications. In normal outdoor lighting conditions the pictures are absolutely stunning - whether using the AVCHD high-definition or MPEG2 standard-definition recording modes.
The HDR-SR8 is further proof that HDD and solid-state video recording technology is here to stay. Image quality and indoor sound quality is very good indeed, although many users are going to have problems handling the AVCHD clips in their computers for some time to come due to the heavy demands it places on systems.
The bundled software is designed to smooth the transition somewhat, and the increased performance available on new PCs will eradicate those issues.
All in all, the HDR-SR8 is a lovely camcorder that's a pleasure to use - even if some of the manual functionality is a tad inaccessible. Picture quality in good light is stunning, but at just under a grand is it a worthy substitute for a tape-based HDV camcorder? Not quite.
Tech.co.uk was the former name of TechRadar.com. Its staff were at the forefront of the digital publishing revolution, and spearheaded the move to bring consumer technology journalism to its natural home – online. Many of the current TechRadar staff started life a Tech.co.uk staff writer, covering everything from the emerging smartphone market to the evolving market of personal computers. Think of it as the building blocks of the TechRadar you love today.


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The erratic results that arise from visible, nuggety gold are a problem around the world.
HP3 Global can help you address this issue, also known as nugget effect, with precious metal analysis and assays in any of the laboratories in our network.
Our unparalleled level of analytical expertise means we know how to sample and treat such materials. The screen metallics method, also known as pulp metallics, is used to obtain better reproducibility when metallic gold is present in the ore.
In this method, a 500g sample is screened to 106 microns. The plus fraction is fire assayed for gold and a duplicate assay is performed on the minus fraction. The size fraction weights, coarse and fine fraction gold content and total gold content are reported.
Screened metallics can also be used with samples containing other native metals such as copper, silver, palladium and platinum.
HP3 Global has an intensive, ongoing program to monitor quality in all our labs. Dozens of our labs carry internationally and industry recognized certifications and/or accreditations. Scopes vary among laboratories.
Partner with HP3 Global to get more reproducible gold results on samples containing visible gold.


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In a stunning ruling that could revolutionize college sports, a federal agency said Wednesday that football players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first union of college athletes.
The decision by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board answered the question at the heart of the debate over the unionization bid: Do football players who receive full scholarships to the Big Ten school qualify as employees under federal law and therefore can legally unionize?
Peter Sung Ohr, the NLRB regional director, said in a 24-page decision that the players "fall squarely" within the broad definition of employee.
Pro-union activists cheered as they learned of the ruling.
"It's like preparing so long for a big game and then when you win — it is pure joy," said former UCLA linebacker Ramogi Huma, the designated president of Northwestern's would-be football players' union.
An employee is regarded by law as someone who, among other things, receives compensation for a service and is under the strict, direct control of managers. In the case of the Northwestern players, coaches are the managers and scholarships are a form of compensation, Ohr concluded.
The Evanston, Ill., university argued that college athletes, as students, do not fit in the same category as factory workers, truck drivers and other unionized workers. The school announced plans to appeal to labor authorities in Washington, D.C.
Supporters of the union bid argued that the university ultimately treats football as more important than academics for scholarship players. Ohr sided with the players on that issue.
"The record makes clear that the employer's scholarship players are identified and recruited in the first instance because of their football prowess and not because of their academic achievement in high school," Ohr wrote. He also noted that among the evidence presented by Northwestern, "no examples were provided of scholarship players being permitted to miss entire practices and/or games to attend their studies."
The ruling also described how the life of a football player at Northwestern is far more regimented than that of a typical student, down to requirements about what they can and can't eat and whether they can live off campus or purchase a car. At times, players put 50 or 60 hours a week into football, he added.
Alan Cubbage, Northwestern's vice president for university relations, said in a statement that while the school respects "the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it."
The next step would be for scholarship players to vote on whether to formally authorize the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA, to represent them, according to the NLRB decision.
The specific goals of CAPA include guaranteeing coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former players, reducing head injuries and potentially letting players pursue commercial sponsorships.
But critics have argued that giving college athletes employee status and allowing them to unionize could hurt college sports in numerous ways, including raising the prospect of strikes by disgruntled players or lockouts by athletic departments.
For now, the push is to unionize athletes at private schools, such as Northwestern, because the federal labor agency does not have jurisdiction over public universities.
Outgoing Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter took a leading role in establishing CAPA. The United Steelworkers union has been footing the legal bills.
Colter, who has entered the NFL draft, said nearly all of the 85 scholarship players on the Wildcats roster backed the union bid, though only he expressed his support publicly.
He said the No. 1 reason to unionize was to ensure injured players have their medical needs met.
"With the sacrifices we make athletically, medically and with our bodies, we need to be taken care of," Colter told ESPN.
The NCAA has been under increasing scrutiny over its amateurism rules and is fighting a class-action federal lawsuit by former players seeking a cut of the billions of dollars earned from live broadcasts, memorabilia sales and video games. Other lawsuits allege the NCAA failed to protect players from debilitating head injuries.
NCAA President Mark Emmert has pushed for a $2,000-per-player stipend to help athletes defray some expenses. Critics say that is not nearly enough, considering players help bring in millions of dollars to their schools and conferences.
In a written statement, the NCAA said it disagreed with the notion that student-athletes are employees.
"We frequently hear from student-athletes, across all sports, that they participate to enhance their overall college experience and for the love of their sport, not to be paid," the NCAA said.
The developments are coming to a head at a time when major college programs are awash in cash generated by new television deals that include separate networks for the big conferences. The NCAA tournament generates an average of $771 million a year in television rights itself, much of which is distributed back to member schools by the NCAA.
Attorneys for CAPA argued that college football is, for all practical purposes, a commercial enterprise that relies on players' labor to generate billions of dollars in profits. The NLRB ruling noted that from 2003 to 2013 the Northwestern program generated $235 million in revenue — profits the university says went to subsidize other sports.
During the NLRB's five days of hearings in February, Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald took the stand for union opponents, and his testimony sometimes was at odds with Colter's.
Colter told the hearing that players' performance on the field was more important to Northwestern than their in-class performance, saying, "You fulfill the football requirement and, if you can, you fit in academics." Asked why Northwestern gave him a scholarship of $75,000 a year, he responded: "To play football. To perform an athletic service."
But Fitzgerald said he tells players academics come first, saying, "We want them to be the best they can be … to be a champion in life."


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Show All Answers
Call 602-506-7170 for assigned inspector information; if unavailable, contact the Call Center at 602-506-3301 for immediate assistance.
These inspections are performed by separate divisions. Grading inspections must be performed first to ensure construction will be free of inundation. We are currently working on a program to permit 155 FF inspections and 110 inspections at the same time; the website will be updated when implemented.
Available inspections are listed on the permit, they may appear on page 2 or 3 of your issued permit.
Gas clearances are sent upon 900 Final inspection approval for safety reasons. The 819 inspection is usually just for the underground piping. Approval of the 819 inspection is normally just to backfill or cover the trench and not all final testing, connections or related permits are complete at this time. If the permit only requires a single inspection for a gas repair, a clearance would be sent at that time.
Temporary power is issued for construction of the project only, usually for limited GFCI receptacles. If it was approved early in the project and is not requested from the utility company until further along in the project, a final inspection would be required to verify the electrical installation that has progressed meets all applicable codes. There may be exceptions based on special circumstances, ex: service panel replacements, upgrades and PV solar installations.
Contact information must be given on each inspection request if you would like to receive a call from the inspector. Given the volume of inspections and area we cover, inspections are not available by appointment.
No. Approved plans, access to inspection site, and any special instructions must be provided for inspector.
All elements required by code or ordinances must be completed prior to final inspection. Cosmetic items such as paint and carpet do not need to be completed on residential projects for final.
A Residential Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) may be requested by submitting a request via our online inquiry system.


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STATUS ANXIETY Hunter and Fox Phone Case
So you're glued to your mobile... now you can keep texting whilst ordering your morning coffee and flicking your credit card out of the back of your phone. Voila! No more riffling through your wallet to get to your most frequently used stuff, keep 3-4 cards and a couple of notes close at hand. The Hunter and Fox iPhone case is made to cut the fuss and improve the way you carry.
- Full grain Italian leather
- Moulded to come up above the screen face
- Fits 4 cards and cash
- iPhone 6 will fit the iPhone 7/8 case
- iPhone XS fits in iPhone X case (not iPhone XR)
- Comes in recycled cardstock Status Anxiety box


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SCORE's 2018 "The Megaphone of Main Street: Women's Entrepreneurship" data report surveyed women on their successes and challenges in running their businesses.
Our fourth infographic based on this data report focuses on how women start businesses, why they start businesses, and why they chose the industries they did.
Why do women start businesses when they do?
Women from ages 18 to over 65 were asked why they started their businesses when they did. The women noted an open opportunity, passion, a job change, experience and education in their chosen field, family considerations, and necessities such as layoffs and looking for extra income.
When comparing the women's ages and the reasons they opened a new business, two points stand out in the data. Twenty-eight percent of business owners under age 34 started a business based on seeing an opportunity in the market, and 28% of owners over age 65 started a business out of necessity.
When asked to elaborate on her reason for starting a business based on opportunity, one millennial said, "I had an idea and decided it was the time to build it."
Meanwhile, one baby boomer who started her business out of necessity shared, "I was going to be laid off from a job of 22 years with no pension."
Aside from opportunity and necessity, the next highest reason women opened a business was family considerations for both the 35-44 (23%) and the 45-54 (26%) age bracket.
Although family considerations were a large part in creating their business, it was often for different reasons. One woman in this category said, "It coincided with when we decided to start our family."
While another said, "I rushed into my business because I didn't have children."
Both shared very different family-driven reasons for starting their businesses.
What industries do women choose and why?
Women are starting businesses in all industries. Among the women surveyed:
- 14% started businesses in the health care and social assistance industry
- 13% in businesses in retail
- 9% in education
- 8% in hospitality, travel and food services
- 7% in arts, recreation and entertainment
- 6% in advertising, public relations and marketing
- 5% in construction and manufacturing
- 5% in management and IT consulting
- 3% in real estate
- 2% in wholesale sales and trades
Thirty percent of women classified their businesses under "other professional services."
When asked why they chose the industry they did:
- 45% of women said it was due to their prior experience and education
- 31% chose their industry based on passion
- 15% saw an opportunity in that industry
- 6% chose to help others
When asked about financing, a whopping 73% of women said they were self-financing their business, while 27% sought outside financing. One woman who sought funding said she wanted to build business credit, while another wanted to expand and grow faster than the organic rate. Some of the 73% who were self-financing did not think they could find financing.
Whether it's tech, construction, or anything in between, women of all ages from all over the country are creating their own businesses for a multitude of different reasons.
Read the rest of "The Megaphone of Main Street: Women's Entrepreneurship" data report and see the previous three infographics.
If you're looking for someone to help you start your business, reach out and get a SCORE mentor today. We would love to walk you through the details and help you get your business off the ground!
Copyright © 2023 SCORE Association, SCORE.org
Funded, in part, through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.


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Biggest land donation in UC history to expand research, outreach
The University of California will add 4,584 acres of Northern California mixed-conifer forest to its research lands, doubling the size of UC's research forests, as a result of a land donation approved yesterday (November 16) in Sacramento. The transfer is the largest single acquisition of forestland in the University's history.
The donation was approved at a meeting of the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, a private foundation that was established in 2004 as part of a Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) bankruptcy settlement to ensure that over 140,000 acres of California's pristine watershed lands are conserved for the public good and to serve California's young people.
"This four-and-half-thousand acres is a tiny portion of the total PG&E lands, but it's an enormous boon to UC's research and outreach capabilities," said J. Keith Gilless, a professor of forestry and dean of the UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources, which houses the UC Center for Forestry.
The UC proposal focused on learning how California's working forests in key watersheds can be managed to sustainably provide essential ecosystem and climate benefits over the next century.
The new lands will enable researchers to:
• Learn how different components of forest ecosystems will respond to climate change, increasing fire risks, and invasive species;
• Use and measure a range of forest-management approaches, including reserves, to better understand all the forest ecosystem components;
• Broaden outreach to K-12, community college and university students; researchers; and the public.
"The University's goal is to harvest knowledge, not timber," Gilless said.
UC's proposal received widespread support from the research community, including Yale University, Cornell University, Oregon State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of British Columbia.
John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at UC Berkeley, said that UC shares the goals expressed in many public comments, which stressed the value of intact forests, tall trees and wildlife habitats. But Battles also noted the importance of research.
"Conservation in this era of change is confronted by the reality that no ecosystem, no matter how remote or wild, is protected. We want to be proactive by learning how to build resilient forests under a changing and stressful climate," he said.
At Wednesday's meeting, the Stewardship Council board of directors also approved a donation of 7,016 acres to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Calfire) for a new state demonstration forest that will be located adjacent to the new UC forest parcel near the Pit River in Shasta County. The Stewardship Council also discussed funding a shared research and outreach facility that would be shared by the two public entities.
Together, the UC and Calfire donations significantly expand the existing research and demonstration state forests owned and operated by state entities and will complement the forest research currently conducted on US Forest Service and National Park Service lands.
"The addition of new forest types and locations broadens the ability of UC Center for Forestry to collaborate with a range of public and private forest owners to conduct critical research and education on forestry management, climate change and other issues affecting the Sierra and Cascade ranges," Gilless said.
The donation comprises two locations: 3,100 acres near the Pit River in Shasta County, on the west side of the Pit-McCloud watershed, and 1,484 acres in the Lake Spaulding area in Nevada County, near the top of the Yuba-Bear River watershed. Before this donation, the UC Center for Forestry held 5,131 acres over four research sites in Contra Costa County, Plumas, Tulare and El Dorado counties.
Due to land survey work and the California Public Utilities Commission's detailed land-transfer process, the Stewardship Council estimates that UC will take possession of the new lands in approximately one year.
Related story: New Report Highlights Carbon Benefits of Forests
John Battles, Professor of Forest Ecology, UC Berkeley
J. Keith Gilless, Dean, UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources; Professor of Forestry, UC Berkeley
Bill Stewart, Director, UC Center for Forestry; Cooperative Extension Forest Management Specialist
510-643-3130, 510-318-0377 (cell)


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In Dinner for Schmucks, he pretty much steals every scene he's in with Steve Carell. Too bad there aren't more. And in The Hangover, his sad, weird, hilarious future brother-in-law adds an antic element that's not fully exploited — except perhaps in the infamous closing-credit montage of photos, in which he appears to be getting a blowjob from an older woman in an elevator.
In his latest, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck's It's Kind of a Funny Story, he plays a mental patient who befriends a teenager with suicidal tendencies. Such laughs! Here's what he had to say while promoting the new movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.
What was going on in that elevator inThe Hangover? The elevator thing was not real. I had a talk with the elderly lady, and I was like, "Ma'am, I'm so sorry we have to do this." She was like an old porno lady. She could care less; she's done much, much worse, as you can see on the internet.
So that wasn't your idea? No. I actually offered [director] Todd Phillips's assistant $1000 to somehow talk Todd out of having that in there.
The role inFunny Story is relatively serious. Is that what appealed to you? Yes. After The Hangover, I wanted to make sure that the next thing I did wasn't exactly in the same heartbeat as that. So it was a conscious thing. Plus, those directors are great directors, and I'd seen their movies, and I was very flattered that they would ask someone like me, who's probably known for more-outlandish stuff, to be in the movie. Really, for me, as far as trying to do a movie, it's all about the director — or in this case, directors. And if you feel confident with them, and they let you do your thing, I'm all for it. Even if it's a porno.
Actually, your character inThe Hangover could end up in the same situation as your character here. Maybe so. I'm playing these parts of nutjobs. But in this one, I was trying to make him a bit more of a thoughtful nutjob.
They say that comedy is a way of counteracting mental pain or sadness or anger. Do you think that's true? I think that's a stereotype of comics in general, and there's a reason there's a stereotype. Certainly a lot of comics come from bad upbringings and sad situations. I know a lot of comics that are medicated — a lot. A couple of my good friends are overly medicated. Some people are born with a mathematical mind. I think some people are born with a comedic mind. And sometimes it's a combination of both.
See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH
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Ganada: I only studied this Ganada book for one month in a Saturday course at Korean Language Academy in Gangnam. I wasn't particularly impressed by the book or the class and I switched back to Metro. The book has very few illustrations, short, uninteresting dialogues and exercises that need to be done in a separate notebook because they don't give you space in the book. While I did not like this book much at all, my boyfriend was quite happy with it. As he teaches Korean classes on Saturdays, he often uses this book when he teaches level 3. While it's not intriguing, it does have good explanations of grammar, in English, in the book (no supplements necessary). The exercises are also good for doing orally in class. So, while I was not a big fan of this book, it may be worth studying in the right environment. There are also Chinese and Japanese versions of this book available.
Yonsei Leveled Reader: Upon the recommendation of a classmate of mine, I bought this Yonsei reading book. It comes in six levels and actually is great for reading practice. When I went to Kyobo to buy this, they didn't have the level 3 which I wanted (reading is not my strong point) so I bought the level 4. When I flipped through the book in the store, it looked fine, but as I actually read through it I found it way over my head. All the word definitions were explained in Korean, not in English, and some of those words weren't even in my dictionary. This actually was a good way to learn some vocabulary, but I found that I needed to look up every third word and I realized that that is not an effective way to study. If I find the time to do some more reading practice, I'll go back and buy the level 3. I have since seen it at Kyobo bookstore and it looks much more appropriate for my level.
KIIP Textbook: This is the book that I have just started studying for the 사회통합프로그렘. As it's Intermediate 1 (Level 3) it's a little on the easy side, but even in just the first chapter I've already had one grammar point that I was unfamiliar with (and one that I use everyday and was quite bored during the hour that the teacher went over it). It's also nice because they don't just talk about language, but history, culture and geography as well. Our first week's lesson was learning the provinces of Korea. This was good for me since I have heard of most of them but I could never have found them on a map. I should probably study that map a little more because that's some useful stuff. I hope to write a post about this class as I get further into it and I can write more about the book then. Unfortunately, this book is not commercially available and is only provided, for free, to the students of this government run class.
유학생을 위한 한국어: This is another new book to my repertoire, I just bought it a little while ago and started studying with it with my conversation partner. I mainly bought it because, while it is a text book, it mainly focuses on grammar. After doing the first chapter I practiced three grammar tenses. One which I had never heard of, and two that I'd learned before but rarely use. It's also got some worthwhile vocabulary here too. If you want to study on your own this could be a great book. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain the grammar at all, so for me it's best do to with my conversation partner.
Complete Guide to the TOPIK: This was the only book that I bought to practice for the TOPIK exam. It's basically just a practice test book, though perhaps better than some because it has English explanations for the first test (there are three tests). But, this test is based on the old format of the test, not the new one, the writing questions were much more difficult than the ones on some of the newer tests. Really, when it comes down to it, when you can download all the old tests for free online, is it really necessary to pay for a book of practice tests? If you're looking for TOPIK practice, it may be better to buy a book that focuses on one subject like reading, writing, listening or grammar.
Hope this helps you when you go to buy your next book. While it's only a small sampling of the books that are out there, it covers a lot of the most popular books out there. If you have any other recommendations for Korean books, please leave them in the comments!


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I've created a InfoPath form which uses Data Connections. This was on server1.
Now I want to change this InfoPath Form on server2 (server1 does not exist anymore). I want to add a new Data Connection.
I do use the Connection Options as Local Connection library, so the link to the data connection file is relative.
When I look into the Data Connections for the form template, I still see the Connection Source beeing the server1. When I add a new connection, the Source is server2.
When I Preview the Form, the Form still tries to connect server1 !
How can I change this ?
I found a way to do this: Manually editing data connection details in InfoPath 2007 forms. For me, only the save as source files worked.
Is this the best way to do ?